A Little Late
by LouiseKurylo
Summary: Cho finds Jane using belladonna tea again. Why is Jane doing it?


**A Little Late**

(After "Devil's Cherry," S5,E3

and "Red John's Rules," S5,E22)

**Who**: Jane, Cho

**What:** Is Jane drinking belladonna tea again?

When: After the jeweler's murder and Jane develops his list of 7 Red John suspects

**Where:** The CBI and O'Malley's restaurant

**Why:** Cho wants to know why Jane's drinking more belladonna tea. And Cho _really_ wants him to stop.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of The Mentalist series, characters, scripts, etc.

* * *

**Is Jane drinking belladonna tea again? If so, Cho really wants him to stop.**

* * *

Cho pulled into the CBI lot. It was a beautiful Sunday morning. There were few other cars and he was able to park just outside the entrance. He was surprised to see Jane's Citroen but thought nothing more about it. He grabbed his gym bag and went inside.

Taking the elevator to the basement, Cho stopped by the men's locker room for the CBI gym. It was empty except for one shower which was in use. Each shower had an outer area for drying off in addition to the shower stall itself. He snorted softly, noticing water from that shower was creeping up on the rumpled pile of business clothes on the floor of the outer area. Cho stopped at his locker and switched clean clothes for dirty. He then left and took the elevator up to five, his unit's floor.

The floor was deserted. Cho checked his desk and found the cell phone he'd forgotten Friday night. On impulse, he picked up a folder Jane had wanted and decided to give it to him. _Citroen's here so Jane must be upstairs in the loft–working on god knows what. He should get a life._

The loft was empty. Cho decided to leave the folder on Jane's desk by the window. The desk chair was pushed away. A cup was on its side on the floor. All but a couple of teaspoons of tea had spilled and dried. Cho laid down the folder and picked up the cup. Moving to put it on the desk, he caught a whiff of a distinctive, sweet smell and stopped dead. Frowning, Cho sniffed the tea remaining in the cup, set it down and looked around. He found the tea ball, leaves still damp, and confirmed his suspicion. _Belladonna. What the hell!_ He looked around, checking behind stacks of boxes and shelving to confirm no one was there. He then took the stairs back down, two at a time, and checked Lisbon's office, the bullpen, the men's room and the kitchenette area. Still no one. He snapped his fingers and returned to the men's locker room.

Jane was seated on the bench, towel around his hips, clothes next to him. He stood as Cho walked in. Jane turned away from Cho and moved toward his locker. Cho grabbed Jane's shoulder, turned him around and pushed him against the bank of lockers. Jane neither resisted nor moved, but looked Cho up and down.

"Jane, where's the rest of it?"

"Flushed it."

Cho took a breath, visibly forcing himself to be calm. "Get dressed. We need to talk." After a pause. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Give me a minute to dress."

~.~.~.~

Fifteen minutes later, they were seated at O'Malley's. The high walls of the restaurant's booths were ideal for private conversation. O'Malley's served brunch on Sundays but business was light on weekends so they had the place nearly to themselves. Cho and Jane each got food and something to drink.

Cho finally felt calm enough to tackle talking to Jane. "Jane, that was belladonna tea. Months ago you accidentally drank some at the Mendelsohnn crime scene. You had convulsions and had to have your stomach pumped. What the hell is going on?"

'Yes, I made it. Drank some."

"Why?"

"At Mendelsohnn's I had hallucinations of my daughter, grown up. I wanted to see her again."

"Jane, you know it was an hallucination. Why?"

"Lonely."

Cho leaned back. "You're not making sense. Tell me what's going on. Start with Mendelsohnn's and take it to today."

"Or what?"

"Damn it, Jane. Or I tell Lisbon. Or you get kicked out of CBI. Belladonna's a banned substance, dangerous as hell. You could've OD'd and killed yourself, especially in a deserted building."

Jane leaned back and grimaced, resigning himself to having the conversation. "At Mendelsohnn's I had hallucinations of my grown daughter. You wouldn't understand unless you had kids. I lifted some of the murderer's stock of belladonna the next day. I made some of the tea back then, but it had no effect. It was just tea."

"The hospital must have dosed you with the antidote when you had your stomach pumped."

"Yeah, I figured. This is the second time I tried it. I won't do it again."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Know why I was in the shower? I was washing off imaginary blood from my family's murder. The hallucination I got this time was Red John killing my wife and daughter."

Cho rested his forehead on his hand. "Christ. Know what I would tell a friend?"

"We are friends."

"Jane, you need a life. Today, in the present. You can't live ten years in the past, before your family was killed. You and Lisbon. Why not?"

"It's a little late. And it puts her in greater danger."

"That's crap. If he cares, don't you think Red John already knows you and Lisbon are a couple? You killed his man Dumar protecting her. You saved her life from his operative, Gupta with his bomb jacket. She's saved your life, too. Hell, half of CBI figures you're a couple. The water cooler gossip is whether you two have or haven't. And how long Lisbon's going to wait."

"Cho, after Red John took Kristina Frye, I had a hell of a time accepting that people close to me might be targeted. Lisbon made the argument that it's part of her job as a cop. I've reluctantly had to accept that."

"Figured that out. So you're still here and it's obvious you two are a couple in any way that matters. Why not have a personal life?"

"If it were just Lisbon and me, maybe. But she's Catholic. If she got pregnant, we'd have the child." Jane looked away. "I–I _can't_ risk Red John killing another child."

Enormously uncomfortable, Cho responded, "Jane, is that real or an excuse? With modern‑‑"

"Damn it, Cho. Don't patronize me," Jane said, openly angry. "A 2% birth control failure rate means a 10% chance of pregnancy over five years. More as time goes by. I. Can. Not. Risk. That." Jane glared at him a moment then looked away.

The silence stretched long. Cho finally responded, "I understand. But what you're doing now isn't working. Look, man, you're screwing around with a dangerous hallucinogen to cope with the loss of your family. That's not smart. That's a sign things are falling apart."

"It's gotten more complicated. Remember the murder of Eileen Turner?"

"Yes."

"Red John had Gottlieb, the Child Protective Services director, target Eileen because she was connected to me. I knew her as Eileen Barlow when I was a kid. Gottlieb gave me a disk from Red John. He's changing the game. He's going to start killing again. Either I catch him. Or he catches me. The end game has begun."

Cho leaned back, looking even more serious than usual. "That's open warfare."

"Yeah. I think Lisbon plans to brief the team this week. If it's that open and intense, you all are in danger as well as me. I'm sorry I've brought this to the unit's doorstep."

"That's illogical. It's our job to catch killers. Let's focus on getting him and staying alive. That brings me back to your stupid belladonna stunt. Convince me you won't do it again."

"I told you. If I can't control the hallucination, it's useless. Worse than useless if I have to watch my family murdered."

"That simple?"

"Yeah. Just as simple as it was for you to stop abusing pain medication, Cho."

Cho took a deep breath. "Fair point. Here's the deal. I catch you using belladonna-or anything else, I tell Lisbon. You figure I'm abusing pain medication, you do the same."

"Symmetrical. Fair."

Cho suppressed a smile. "Figured you'd say that. ... So, who's Red John? Rigsby, Van Pelt and I reckon you had a massive project to figure it out. You're not holed up in the loft anymore, so you must've finished."

"What are you, detectives or something? I've got some ideas. Don't know how to play it yet. I need to think about it some more."

"Okay. How about the personal stuff?"

"Cho, I've been at this ten years. You're right-I can't keep doing this. I win or Red John does, and pretty soon, too. If I win, yeah, I want to get on with my life, see where things go with Lisbon. The worst possible outcome is more of the same."

"Then plan on staying alive. Otherwise, you're really cheating Lisbon since she's waited so long for you."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Let me buy you a beer."


End file.
